EV experiences

I live in Southern California, so I do not experience the ICE coming on unless I accidentally throttle too hard. I do quite a bit of EV driving. My ratio is about 50/50 at this point. Car says I've saved about 90 gallons of gas.

Loving the car, wish I had a bit more distance on the battery though. Now I'm almost wishing I would have purchased the Volt.

 

blasphemy

 

Good thread.
My estimated EV range is 10.0 miles each morning.
My car is kept on a garage, where the temp has been in the 30s / 40s for the last couple of months.
My morning routine consists of an 8-mile round trip drive, and is quite hilly for the first couple of miles. If I'm not careful, the ICE kicks in
I typically make the trip with about 1 mile left to spare - all in EV mode.

Although I m happy with the car, I too wish I had better EV range (at least double ). I would have purchased a Volt instead , but I keep my cara for a very long time, and I trust Toyota over Chevy in terms of reliability over the long haul

My greater concern is what happens in 10 years. Toyota has warned us about battery degradation over time - does this mean in 10 years I'll only be getting a range of 5 miles??

I'm really hoping by then that the the technology will be such to permit an affordable upgrade to a real battery with respectable range.

As I see it, the PiP battery is more of a toy than anything else.

 

I wouldn't say it's a toy, but just a stage in technology and things will improve. I try to use PIP basically as a EV, however like others the engine does come on if I push just a little too hard. My range usually is 11.1 and as of yesterday trip A showed 93 mpg for 1300 miles. My trip to W. Sac knocked it back down to 90 again. All in all, it's fun.

 

Granted - calling it a "toy" is an exaggeration. Perhaps "novelty" would hit the mark more squarely. It's a nice little feature to play with. The gas it saves does certainly add up. It pretty much guarantees that you'll get more than 50 mpg on any trip in total if you start off fully charged. I get that. But only 10 miles? Again, I hope an affordable upgrade eventually becomes available....

 

A very timely thread.

Got the 15k service this morning, and 1 year anniversary is coming up 3/14.

I had to let my wife use the vehicle after her car was in shop for 2 months last summer after a lightning strike, and mileage suffered. (Egad, turning on the a/c during ev mode! Wasting ev range! Tracking mileage and fuel?)

Anyway, my Fuelly shows an average of 84.6 mpg, with a low of 57.63mpg and a hi of 119.5mpg.

I'd say the Pip is definitely a vehicle that has to be operated mindfully to achieve the best mileage and efficiency.

I don't have a routine, but sometimes it seems there's a few weeks where all the trips are short-range, and not very far over EV range for a round trip. A road trip from GA to FL over mostly flat terrain can yield 65 mpg if the pedal isn't so lead-footed. The inn we stayed at graciously let us recharge on an outside 120v outlet.

When new, EV range showed as 12.7 for quite a while, and now reads 11.3 after a full charge. I did reset the meter by disconnecting 12v battery on 12/29, and for a few days the ev range was back at 13.1, then decreased steadily to 11.3 by 2nd week of Feb. Yeah, it would be nice for bragging rights to still be able to go to favorite Mexican restaurant and Tequila Bar roundtrip on EV, but it's still pretty darned efficient.

Sometimes i wish there was a radar speed control in the rear, to spot rapidly approaching traffic. I've been flipped off a couple of times, and have since tried to get up to the speed limit if i do see traffic coming.

Only a couple of days have wanted the 240v EVSE due to short turnaround, but it hasn't been worth the $1k to get it wired yet.

It'll take a major mod from Toyota to ever get rid off this car.

 

My wife is afraid to drive the PIP! I love it.

 

I've been EV driving for 5 months now and have been longing for a Level 2 charger to help extend my daily EV range and further reduce gas consumption. I finally got my Leviton charger installed and have only had to use gas twice this month and achieving EV-only daily mileage of 67 and 63 on a couple of days. That's Leaf range without its compromises. Loving it!

 

The big compromise is the price tag!

Given the Toyota discounts and tax credits, I was able to purchase a PiP for only $1000 more than a regular Prius with all the options I wanted (options that came standard in the PiP). In that case, for an extra $1000, I felt that the PiP was worth it. I still do and don't regret my decision. But unless you have the right kind of commute and driving habits, it's not worth much more than that extra $1000 IMHO.

 

John1701a, We're largely quibbling here. I very much like my Prius PiP. Your points are all very well taken. Maybe I'd be willing to spend up to an extra $2000 for the PiP if push came to shove.

That said, I don't think people would be forking over an additional $5,000 for a vehicle with a slightly improved battery technology. The big draw of the PiP is the EV-mode. Given that the EV-mode only gets you about 11 miles (which will decrease over time), I'm not sure it's worth an extra $5,000 to most people.

If, like most people, you get to charge it before heading to work, and work more than 11 miles from home, and can't charge it again until you're home, you're saving 11 miles worth of gas per day on a car that already gets 50 mpg. That's like saving 1/5 a gallon of gas. That's $1 a day (@ $5 / gallon). That's probably about $350 per year, or $3500 over 10 years. That's what I'm getting at.

 

ice always kicks in for me when i need to descend a steep, long grade first thing in the morning on a full battery. when the battery is < full, i can get down without ice kicking in (banking ~1.5mi EV). it would be nice to have a larger battery ala volt, but for me, i'm not willing to sacrifice the cargo and ability to seat 5.

sure there will be some battery degradation down the road, but who's to say the PiP battery will be worse than Volt, Leaf or Tesla. we'll see how the batteries compare in a few years. based on their long history/reputation, i'm confident Toyota did their homework.

 

That's what I'm banking on ....

 

If you have the luxury of a garage for your PIP- even in cold weather locations- you have a decent chance of holding off the ICE start-up till it's needed due to call for cabin heat, hard acceleration or exhausted EV battery.

On the other hand- if you're like me where your PIP lives strictly outdoors, cold soaks for 15hrs before the next use in mid teens temps... early ICE start-up is unavoidable. We just have to live with 70-80+ mpg and 9.3mi EV range for a few months...

 

Pip's smaller battery, 110v charging = less stress on battery cells = longer life? we'll see in a few years

 

Charge cycles may be what we need to worry about; smaller battery requires us to be charging much more frequently than those vehicles with larger batteries (given your individual drive routine).

 

I have the same issue, put the car in neutral and you will be fine.

 

Love my PiPA. Hope the next PiP will have more EV miles with less charge time